Bad Garden Bugs and Roses

I know this is meant to be a vegie growing challenge but I thought i’d put my two cents worth about the constant battle I have with aphids sucking the life out of the new growth and flower buds forming on my roses! I usually just squish them by hand but I’ve noticed that with the unusually warm weather their numbers have suddenly increased! So before it gets to the stage where the tips look like they’ve had a dip in a sticky vat of the buggers I’ve decided to whip out the big guns which is Yates Natures Way a soap based spray that controls aphids, mites, thrips, mealybug and whitefly amongst other unwanted garden nasties! I’ll be using this later in summer on my beans as well which usually get attacked by whitefly & leafhoppers something we had in plague proportions 2 years ago!

I’ve noticed that this year the packaging has been updated as well and compared to the old bottle that I have, Yates has now received organic certification from BFA(Biological Farmers Association) which is great to see as I do try to avoid pesticides especially ones harmful to bee’s whenever I can!

Apart from using it on my roses I also spray this onto my cabbages and broccolini which I currently have growing from my autumn/winter sowing. For whatever reason mealybugs just seem to love cabbage and it’s quite hard work to control them as you need to make contact to kill them and their usually hiding in the hard to reach places between the leaves!

At least I have comfort in knowing that it’s a safe product to use because there is no withholding period meaning that I don’t have to wait 3-7 days unlike other more toxic control methods before eating my vegies, just simply wash them thoroughly and your good to go!

Anyways I hope this has been of some help to anyone out there experiencing the same challenges as I currently have in the garden!

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